Into the Well
by Unsubstantiated Assertion
Summary: While traveling in Xadia, Callum notices the Key of Aaravos reacting strangely to an old well. His attempts to see what's at the bottom of it don't go well. A blatant homage to an old but unforgotten web series.


This is an homage to the old web series Unforgotten Realms, doing a Dragon Prince-ified recreation of one of its most hilarious scenes. I hope its a fitting tribute to both.

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A few days after crossing the border, Callum, Rayla, and Zym stumbled upon an old well. It was standing abandoned in a forest clearing they were passing through, probably having once been the nearest water source for a village that had long since disappeared. None of them paid it any attention. Rayla was focused entirely on keeping her eyes and ears peeled for danger, Zym was asleep in Callum's knapsack, and Callum was messing with the cube as he walked. Still high on the joy of having done what potentially no human before had, he kept holding the cube up to himself and smiling at the sky rune lighting up in his presence.

Suddenly, when he was closest to the well, every side of the cube lit up brighter than he'd ever seen. Callum stopped dead in his tracks and whipped his head around to look for what might have set the cube off. The only thing around was the well, so he held the cube directly above it and the cube grew even brighter.

"Hey!" He called out to Rayla. "Look at this!"

She stopped walking and turned around. "Wha' is i-" she trailed off at the sight of the glowing symbols. "Is it 'cause of the well?"

"I think so," Callum nodded. "My step... my dad, said the cube is supposed to unlock a treasure in Xadia. We have to check inside the well!" He stuffed the cube into his pocket and leaned over for a better look.

It stretched down far deeper than Callum had expected, the bottom completely obscured by pitch blackness. He stood up to see Rayla had come over to check as well.

"There's got to be something down there. We have to go in."

"No, we have to get going," Rayla gestured to the sky. "Sun's goin' down soon and we can't be out in the open, Ez isn't here to convince the night beasties not to eat us anymore."

"But what if the thing the cube's supposed to unlock is down there?"

"I think an all powerful mage would have better places to stash their super important magical treasure than the bottom of some random well."

Perhaps Callum would have backed down, getting Zym home was more important than any mystery about the cube. They were _so close_, after all. But in a roundabout way, King Harrow had essentially entrusted him with finding the secret. He had to at least try.

"I'm going into the well," he raised his right leg over the well, just as Zym started to stir in his pack.

Zym poked his head out, yawning and stretching after a long nap. The shifting weight coupled with Callum's attempt to climb in knocked him off balance. Callum fell over but Rayla's hand shot out to catch him just in time. She pulled Callum to his feet just in time to see Zym disappearing past the rim of the well. Rayla froze in horror.

"You just dropped the _Dragon Prince_ down a well. A possibly magical, maybe bottomless well."

"It was an accident!" Callum held up his hands in front of him. "Actually this isn't even that bad. Zym can fly now! He can just fly straight out of the well."

Sweating bullets, Callum stared down into the well. "You're okay down there, aren't you, Zym?" His voice echoed down the endless brick walls. At first there was no response. Then an equally echoing chirp of annoyance came back. Callum let out the deepest breath he'd ever held just in time to notice Rayla climbing into well.

"What are you doing?!"

Rayla glared at him. "Gettin' Zym out. You stay here, you lost yer' well privileges."

"But," Callum tried to protest.

'No buts. Besides you should've asked me to go down in the first place. Since, ya' know, I already know how to climb." As if the well itself had a sense of dramatic irony, it was right at that moment that Rayla lost her footing and plunged screaming into the well. A massive splash and a disgruntled cry from Zym followed shortly after.

"Rayla!" Callum cried out, and began to psych himself up for a trip down the well for the now double recuse mission.

"I'm okay," Rayla called back with an echo. "This mud," she paused to groan, "at least I _hope_ its mud, broke my fall."

"Well... do you see anything down there?"

"Total darkness."

A not invented yet light bulb went off in Callum's head. "The rope!" They had _borrowed_ a length of rope from the last town they'd ventured near just in case any more climbing was required. "I'll throw it into the well so you can climb up!" Grabbing the coil of rope from his knapsack and tossing it over, Callum realized a split second too late that in his nervousness he had made a terrible error.

"You're supposed to hold onto the other end of the rope you dummy!" Callum had never heard Rayla quite this angry.

"Okay, it's okay." He looked around for something else. The cube! It was still glowing. Rayla could use it as a light source at the very least. "I'll throw the cube into the well!" He tossed it over and it landed with a thunk and cry of pain as it hit Rayla square in the face. Even though he couldn't see what happened, Callum winced at the sound.

"STOP. THROWING THINGS. INTO. THE WELL!" Rayla's furious voice was loud enough to drown out her own echo.

Callum paced back and forth while trying to think of what to do next. At least Rayla had left her daggers resting on the side of the well, without them it would be a lot harder for her to kill him once she found a way out. Her daggers! It was a long shot, but he was out of other options. He'd seen Rayla use them to scale particularly large trees and one rock wall.

"Alright. I'm going to _gently drop_ your daggers into the well so you can use them to climb out."

"Wait, what? No! Don't-" The daggers came spiraling down into the well. Rayla held up her arms to block them with predictable results.

Callum held his head in hands while she screamed. "I'm so sorry! It was the only thing I could think of."

"I'm fine, no thanks to you!" Ralya shouted back, then stopped to hiss out a breath through her teeth. "Oh, that's gonna' leave a scar."

A moment of the awkwardest silence Callum had ever been part of passed. He had to break the tension.

"Well..."

"Well _freaking_ what?!" Rayla spat, except she didn't say "freaking."

"Well what's at the bottom of the well?" Callum could hear the sound of Rayla slapping her palm to her face from all the way down in response to his question.

"I don't bloody well know! I'm covered in mud, and well, who knows what else!"

If there was one silver lining, Callum's plan actually did work. Between the light from the cube and her daggers, Rayla was able to climb out of the well with the cube fastened to her belt and Zym riding on her shoulder. After the longest half hour of his life, Callum grabbed Rayla's hands and pulled her the rest of the way out of the well.

"Listen, Rayla, I am so sorry," Callum repeated as he helped Rayla to her feet. She was covered in mud, had a number of crisscrossing cuts on her arms, and a black eye from where the cube had hit her in the face. Zym didn't have a single scratch on him, and shook what mud had gotten onto him off like a dog. "I never should have mentioned that stupid well-"

Rayla pressed her index finger against Callum's lips to silence him, making sure to smear mud onto his mouth in the process.

"If you say 'well' one my more time, I swear I'll throw you down there." She tossed the cube to Callum and stormed off leaving a trail of muddy footprints. Callum picked up Zym and got the little dragon settled back in his knapsack along with the cube, then hurried after her.


End file.
